


Talk Like A Pirate

by marzbarz



Series: it takes a village (or a pirate crew) [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 22:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1243486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marzbarz/pseuds/marzbarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luffy figures out this whole talking thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Talk Like A Pirate

Luffy graduated from walking to running to climbing so rapidly the Whitebeard Pirates were hard-pressed to keep up. Luffy-duty quickly went from a relatively easy job to one of the most demanding tasks on the ship. If Luffy went five minutes without getting himself into some kind of (usually ridiculous) trouble it was considered a minor miracle – the kid stuck his nose into everything. He let the crew know he could climb by way of scaling the outer railing of the deck and almost falling off the ship, and seemed to consider Whitebeard’s chair a personal challenge no matter how many times he fell off and was saved from injury only by Whitebeard’s quick reflexes.

Luffy also proved he was related to his grandfather by inheriting the Vice-Admiral’s ridiculous strength. It became all too common to find someone carrying a freshly-diapered Luffy and sporting either a bloody nose or a black eye from what Thatch took to calling “Luffy’s head-butt of affection”; once the little guy was stood up on the diaper table so his pants could be pulled back up, he would launch himself towards whoever was changing him, coming in right at face height. Diaper changing became a commander-only job for a while, but after Thatch, Curiel, and Fossa all got concussions and Marco had flames flickering around his head for a few minutes after a change it turned into a Whitebeard-only job. Whitebeard thought the headbutts were adorable rather than painful.

A couple months after Luffy started walking, Thatch announced at the commanders meeting that he wanted to start teaching Luffy some simple sign language. "It'll help him start expressing himself," Thatch explained. "It's just basic stuff - more, food, drink, hurts, stuff like that. This way he can tell us what he wants or how he's feeling, even though he can't use words. Talk around him a lot, too – point stuff out, tell him what you’re doing, stuff like that. It will help him figure out talking.”

The whole crew was eagerly awaiting Luffy’s first word. Thatch had warned them that all kids were different and it could take as long as a year for Luffy to start talking, but the baby had picked up walking so fast that everyone couldn’t help getting their hopes up. “Watch his first word end up being a swear word, yoi” Marco muttered as he watched Kingdew and Atmos argue over Luffy’s head about the block tower the trio was building.

Thatch and Izou laughed. “If it happens it’ll make a great story to tell him when he’s older,” Izou said, shaking his head at the thought. “I’m expecting it to be something along the lines of food, though.”

“I’m trying to teach him a very specific word,” Thatch said, sounding far too mischievous for Marco’s liking. “I have faith he can figure it out before all the rest.”

“This word wouldn’t happen to be turkey, chicken, or pineapple, would it, yoi?” Marco asked suspiciously.

Thatch gave Marco a betrayed look that did nothing to make the phoenix feel better. “Marco, I would never! You wound me, good sir!” He held a hand over his heart dramatically.

Izou rolled his eyes as the two started bickering, leaving them to it and going to join the tower-building group in hopes of teaching Luffy some color coordination before he was utterly ruined by their idiot brothers and sisters.

* * *

Luffy's first word came when he was a little over 17 months old, and looking back on it Thatch and Marco agree that they shouldn’t have been surprised. The pair were snagging Luffy from yet another railing escapade at the time, and Luffy kept turning himself in their arms to face the water, putting his hands together in the sign for ‘more’. "You really like looking at the ocean, don't you, buster," Thatch said, trying to keep a secure hold on the squirming toddler while letting him look at the water.

"Oshie!" Luffy said, flailing in its general direction.

Thatch and Marco both froze, staring at the kid. "Did he just try to say ocean, yoi?" Marco asked quietly. Thatch nodded, and Marco leaned around so Luffy could see him. "Luffy, say ocean."

"Oshie!"

"Ocean," Thatch repeated, trying to emphasis the last syllable.

"Oshin!"

"Close, buddy, so close. Ocean."

"Ocean!"

"You got it, yoi," Marco said, grinning widely. "And it isn't a swear-word, atta boy."

"Let's go show Oyaji your new word, eh buddy?" Thatch said, beaming at Luffy and tossing him in the air a few times. Luffy laughed wildly, which both adults took as a 'yes'. They sprinted across the deck, weaving around confused crew members until they were at the foot of Whitebeard’s chair. “Oyaji, Luffy has something he wants to tell you,” Thatch said, holding up a still-laughing Luffy. “Luffy, tell Oyaji what you just told me and Marco, bub.”

Luffy grinned up at Whitebeard, waving his hands, and said “Ga-ba-ba-boo-ba!”

Marco climbed onto the arm of Whitebeard’s chair so Luffy could see him point towards the water. “Luffy, what’s that, yoi? Tell Oyaji what that is.”

Luffy beamed at Marco and said, clear as day, “Ocean!”

Whitebeard’s laughter boomed across the ship, making Luffy giggle and clap as the giant man plucked him from Thatch’s hold. “You are a true son of the sea, little brat,” Whitebeard said fondly as Luffy babbled at him with the occasional ‘ocean’ thrown in. “A pirate’s life is the life for you after all.” Luffy just clapped.

Naturally, this meant the crew had to throw another party in the baby's honor. Everyone tried to get Luffy to say other words, though by the end of the night they were too drunk to remember just what they were attempting to teach. Upon waking up the next morning they discovered (to half the crew's pleasure and the other half's horror) that the only words that stuck in Luffy's head were pineapple ("pie-apple!") and bastard ("bas-tad!"). Thatch had never been more proud, even though Marco spent the rest of the morning chasing him around the deck in an attempt to throw him off the ship after Luffy had cheerfully waved at the phoenix and chirped “pie-apple!” in greeting.

* * *

Luffy's vocabulary grew exponentially once he started talking. He quickly got a firm grasp on basic food names, parts of the ship, and the names of the crew members who usually took care of him. The only slightly confusing thing was the name he sometimes called Marco or Thatch, "turico". Everyone else got called by their names (and in Whitebeard's case, Oyaji), and Thatch had no idea where this word had come from.

The mystery was solved when he wandered onto the deck just after dark and found Marco sitting on the railing, rocking a sleepy-looking Luffy and singing softly in a language Thatch didn't recognize. He didn't interrupt, just sat next to his best friend and waited through the two songs it took for Luffy to fall asleep. "That's a beautiful language," he said after a few more minutes of silence. "I've never heard it before."

"Nobody has these days," Marco replied, staring out at the ocean. "It died around a century ago; I'm the only one left who remembers it, and I only remember some songs and words."

"That's where we got our new title from, huh?" Thatch said, glancing Marco's way. "Turico, or whatever it is?"

Marco nodded. "It means 'brother', yoi. I started calling Luffy that whenever it was just me and him, and he picked it up." He shrugged. “I haven’t had anyone call me that in a very, very long time. It was nice to hear again, yoi.”

Thatch couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Sometimes he forgot just how old Marco really was, just how long he’d lived; the only time he’d asked the phoenix his age, the older man had laughed and said he lost count. Thatch had tried to tease the sad look from his eyes with some senility jokes and never brought it up again. Eventually he settled on attempting to steer the topic away from Marco’s dead language. “He only calls the two of us ‘turico’, you know. I think it means something special to him.”

Marco nodded, smiling softly down at Luffy sleeping in his arms. “I think so too, yoi. We’re the two who have taken care of him the most, you know? You get Luffy-duty the most because you know what you’re doing more than anyone else, and you drag me along with you half the time. For him, ‘turico’ probably means something like ‘parent’, yoi.”

Thatch reached out to run a hand through Luffy’s hair gently. “Yeah, I suppose.” He turned to Marco, a gleam in his eye that made Marco instinctively inch away. “You’re a total mother hen, so it fits you.”

Marco spluttered indignantly. “I am not the mom, yoi! You’re the mom!”

Thatch cackled. “You keep telling yourself that, Marco. You keep telling yourself that.” He stretched, swinging his legs off the railing and heading for the stairs to the commanders’ quarters. “Better get the munchkin to bed, mama bird. Don’t want him to get a cold from the chilly night air or something.”

Marco flipped Thatch off as he slid down to the deck, following his friend in. “Fuck off, yoi.”

“Such language! That’s no way for a mother to talk!”

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep if you don’t shut up, yoi.”

“Such violence, Marco. You’re setting a terrible example for Luffy.”

“GOOD NIGHT, THATCH.”

* * *

BONUS SCENE - Thatch earns his attempted drowning

"Now, Luffy," Thatch said, swaying a bit as he sat in front of the toddler, the party in full swing around them. "This is the most important word you are going to learn tonight. We've been working on this for a few weeks, I'm confident you can get it now."

Luffy stared at the older man, chewing on his knuckles, then took his hand out of his mouth and said "Ocean?"

"More important than ocean," Thatch said seriously. "You see Marco?" Luffy brightened, babbling happily. "He is not Marco, he is pineapple. Say it with me, bubba - pineapple."

“Pipple?”

“Pineapple. Piiiiiiiine-apple.”

“Pie-appy?”

“You’re so close, buddy, so very close – this is the most important thing you could learn tonight, you can do it.” Thatch snorted. “Even if Marco won’t think so, the bastard.”

“Bas-tad!”

“No, no, not bastard – don’t repeat that ever again – pineapple.” Thatch pointed in Marco’s general direction for emphasis. “Pineapple.”

“Pie-apple?”

“Yes!” Thatch shouted in triumph, snatching Luffy into his arms and twirling drunkenly around the room with him. “Beautiful! Say it again, ok? Just to make sure.”

“Pie-apple bas-tad!” Luffy chirped happily, giggling as he held his arms out like he was flying. “Pie-apple bas-tad!”

“Marco is going to murder me tomorrow and it is going to be so worth it,” Thatch said, holding Luffy up and looking him in the eye. “I love you, kid. This deserves food.”

Luffy nodded, and the two headed off with much babbling and happy calls of “bas-tad!”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact – I work at a childcare center, and Luffy’s “head-butt of affection” is based off one the little boys in my toddler class. I stood him up to pull up his pants after I changed his diaper, and he nailed me with a headbutt right above my left eye, then gave me a huge grin. He nailed my coworker right in the nose a couple weeks later. The signing is another thing that we do at work with the waddler class. Also, I'm aware that Luffy is behind the typical developmental schedule in speaking; I think it fits him, though. He's not dumb, but it takes him a little longer to work some more cerebral things out than it does physical things.
> 
> I apologize for interrupting the fluff with my Marco feels, I have a lot of them. “Turico” is Quechua for “brother”; I imagine Marco is from South America somewhere, and Quechua is the indigenous language of multiple South American countries. This is kind of setting up Luffy’s future relationship with Marco and Thatch – he’ll love all his brothers and sisters and his Oyaji, but Marco and Thatch will be special.
> 
> Ah, and I realized the other day that I've been forgetting something important - thanking everyone who reviewed! Thank you very much, guys, I really appreciate every review I get. Thanks for all the faves and follows, as well!


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